DAVIDsTEA Teal Nail Polish Search and Comparison

Holy nostalgia Friday Batman, I totally found my old Livejournal and now I wish I still wrote in it. It was GOOD reads and I wish I still maintained a blog like that. Ah well, I have you guys, right? Except, I have no idea where I am going to post my review of Animal Crossing. I'll find SOMETHING! Anyway, today I have something that has been in the making for a little while now. As you know, I have been on the search for the perfect DAVIDsTEA teal nail polish! Oh man, it's been so hard to find it but I think I've found something close.

Hint? It only came out recently.

So here's a look at the candidates for the search for America's Next Top-I mean, DAVIDsTEA teal:



Recognize any of them? Have yourself a guess at what you think is going to be close to a DAVIDsTEA teal. From left to right:

Wet N Wild Fergie Miami Spirit
Joe Fresh Turquoise
Sally Hansen Insta-dri Mint Spirit
OPI Fly
Jordana Boy Oh Boy
Essie Naughty Nautical

Got your guess in? Maybe this will help:



Here's our candidates once again next to a DAVIDsTEA retail bag, a button from their "free tea for nurses" day, and lastly, a paint chip off their wall because well it was on the floor and no one was going to pick it up. Here's my Top 4 picks for the Search for the Perfect DAVIDsTEA Teal:



I think the answer is already pretty obvious but I am going to go ahead and still write as if it's suspenseful (now I know how reality TV writers feel!). So, from the left to right, I have Wet N Wild Fergie Miami Spirit, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Spirit, Jordana Boy Oh Boy and Essie Naughty Nautical. I am going to admit that this was very difficult to photograph. The objects have different levels of reflection and may look brighter than they are. I'll do individual reviews for each of the polishes eventually of course, so I'll try my best not to comment on the formulas.







Alright, so the truth is that there are the slightest discrepancies between the samples of the DAVIDsTEA teal that I am using so we could throw this whole comparison out the window and say "GOOD ENOUGH!" but I'll try not to.

Wet N Wild Fergie Miami Spirit dried too dark in nature but in regards to hue, it might have been there. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Spirit was close and had the right "brightness", but it was a tad too much on the green tones. Jordana Boy Oh Boy that was explored on this week's Cheap Polish Tuesday was also fairly close, much on the same closeness of brightness as Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Spirit, but tilted too much on the blue end. Essie Naughty Nautical, which was just released last month seemed to get the memo. Compared to the retail bag and nurses button, the colour seems to be a match. Of course, the button and bag were a little more reflective. In comparison to the paint chip, it was a little too green. I find the paint used in the shop to be a little more blue. Perhaps this is to compensate for the type of lighting used? Because it really depends.

The winner? Essie Naughty Nautical. Check out how well it does against the nurses button and shopping bag:





I wish that Essie Naughty Nautical lacked the shimmer else it could have been right there and perfect. For now, this is as good as it's going to get until, well, DAVIDsTEA takes my request and make a nail polish. (Not going to happen.)

Have you found the perfect DAVIDsTEA teal? Or are you more on the hunt for a perfect Starbucks green? Haha! What do you think of the above comparison?

Joe Fresh Twilight Swatch and Review

Welcome to Cheap Polish Tuesday where we explore and adventure into the world of polishes priced at $5 or less! Today we have a brand that is no stranger to Cheap Polish Tuesday - Joe Fresh! So far, we've seen a lot of cool shades and decent formulas from Joe Fresh. Bonus: They are 3 Free! They are found at the Real Canadian Superstore for $4 a pop, or 3 for $10 - definitely a possible danger when picking up your groceries for the week!



Today I've got Joe Fresh Twilight, which I actually picked up in 2011 when I first started getting into polish. It was my first flakie - AW MEMORIES. Joe Fresh Twilight is a sheer black jelly, packed with large flakies, similar to the colour shift of the flakies in Essie Shine of the Times, an orange to green shift. Application wasn't an issue - I love the Joe Fresh bottle and brushes as I am biased towards shorter and wider brushes. Formula wise, it's sheer, requiring three coats but it works out wonderfully because the end result is a wonderfully layered look, packed with large flakies. Flakies can tend to dry a little bit lumpy, so I added one coat of Seche Vite:









Sorry for the picture porn, this flakie can be tricky to photograph with all the colour shifting! Lastly, nothing does a flakie right like a matte top coat, so here's Revlon Matte Top Coat over top of Joe Fresh Twilight:



So, are flakies sooooo 2011, or are you still enamoured with flakies as much as I am? There's much to be said about your first love, am I right?

Animal Crossing: New Leaf Nintendo 3DS XL Limited Edition Bundle Inspired Nail Art

Oh hey guys, welcome to Shitty Nail Art Monday! It's been a while since I've done one of these, but as some of you might already know, I was coveting the Nintendo 3DS XL Animal Crossing: New Leaf bundle pretty damn hard! I looked everywhere but it was sold out - I ultimately ended up paying a "premium", or "finder's fee" for one on Craigslist, but I am going to go ahead and tell myself that it was worth it, ha! I love my 3DS XL!

So what else did I have to do with the Nintendo 3DS XL Animal Crossing Edition? (Other than the obviously hours of fishing, picking up shells, and shaking trees for monies) - I had to make some nail art! Haha, OH YES I DID!



I wish I had spaced out my pattern a little better but let's face it - I am not that good at nail art; else if I was, it wouldn't be a Shitty Nail Art Monday! For this nail art, I used Zoya Snow White for the white base, and for the pattern, I used Color Club Almost Famous, Joe Fresh Cherry, OPI Jade is the New Black and Quo by Orly Runway Ready. I used exclusively a dotting tool to draw the patterns.



Man, I had no idea how BIG the Nintendo 3DS XL was until I got my own! Wow, it's HUGE! I used to have to play by taking off my glasses and looking at the screen really close, but this screen is so big, I can play it like normal peoples. Check out how GIANT this thing is!





I also neglected that my 3DS XL Animal Crossing Edition has a nice matte finish, so... I had to add one as well. Oops!



And here's a close-up (but I am willing to admit it looks really bad without seeing the reference, haha):



Oy. Have any of you guys picked up Animal Crossing: New Leaf? I am finding it to be SO fun, and kind of see it as being something that the Game Cube version wanted to be, but didn't have the networking capabilities at the time. It's really fun stuff, I am having a blast. If you aren't playing Animal Crossing, what are you playing these days? Or is the weather too nice for video games?

Joe Fresh Cherry Swatch

Alright, burning off the backlog. I wish I posted these sooner when I actually did them because my nail length is horrifying, haha. So uneven and ugh, it was when I was still using that wretched white background. Glad I switched to black. Anyway, it's Cheap Polish Tuesday where we explore polishes that we can find on sale or regular price for $5 or less! Again, today we've got a Joe Fresh polish from Superstore, a Canadian grocery chain up here in Canada. You can find them for $4 a pop, or save a bit of change and buy them for 3 for $10.

Again, sorry - this is an older photo of my nails so they are a bit shorter. This formula is super smooth and slick. Again, I love the Joe Fresh polish brush as it's short and wide. This is not a popular opinion but it definitely works for me! I used two coats for my swatch.



I love all the Joe Fresh polishes I own. They were even my first flakie polish! (But I'll get to that at another time.) They offer a huge selection of basics and I haven't had any problems with their formula. I've already done the calculation on this cheap polish and because of the small 6ml, getting a single 15ml bottle of OPI polish will cost about the same! However, it's all about palette and if you want a choice of colours, I'd recommend Joe Fresh as a possible winner.

It's the same red I used for my DAVIDsTEA Holly Red Winter Tree Perfect Mug inspired nail art:



Anyway, that's all! Short and sweet today. If you haven't checked out yesterday's post, please do! I actually spent a lot of time on that damn rose art and dare I say that I like em and am proud? I hope that gives me hope that I can maybe do nail art that I will like myself one day.

Joe Fresh Turquoise Swatch

It's Cheap Polish Tuesday, where we explore nail polish found in stores (or on sale) for $5 or less! Today I've got a bottle of Turquoise by Joe Fresh, which is an in-house clothing and beauty brand for Superstore, a grocery chain here in Canada. These little 6ml guys are sold for $4 each, or 3 for $10.

I guess I am the lone wolf in this but I prefer shorter brushes for application. I've read many reviews that say their brushes are too short. I feel like my nails are at a decent length so perhaps I apply my nail polish differently from most? Joe Fresh polishes have short brushes. The formula went on smoothly and evenly after two coats and my swatch shows Joe Fresh Turquoise with no top coat:



I haven't read anywhere about Joe Fresh nail polishes being 3-free or non-toxic, or anything like that so I am going to assume that these polishes are not 3-free. Now if we look at the math, you can find OPI nail polish anywhere between $8 and $11. Each OPI bottle is typically 15ml. Essentially, Joe Fresh nail polish cost THE SAME as OPI! I'm not knocking Joe Fresh too much but as an OPI fangirl, I would rather spend the money on a high quality polish that is 3-free. I will buy smaller nail polish like these for smaller quantities possibly for the use of nail art, especially if I need more of a colour. It's great when you are on a budget and you'd rather have more colours for the price of one!

EDIT (June 25th, 2013): I must have forgotten to edit this entry but I'd like to confirm that Joe Fresh polishes ARE 3 FREE! That is all.

DAVIDsTEA Perfect Mug Inspired Nail Art - Holly Red Winter Tree and White Budding Tree

I hope all of you enjoyed the Oscars on the weekend. I personally wasn't surprised at any of the winners, but I am so glad that Anne Hathaway won for her role in Les Miserables because she nailed that performance. Absolute perfection.

Anyway back to nail business, specifically Shitty Nail Art Monday featuring some more art based on DAVIDsTEA Perfect Mugs. I was going to make this into two separate Shitty Nail Art Monday entries but I was way too slow on uploading these and the mugs I've chosen are slowly disappearing off the website. So today I'm posting a 2 in 1!

First on the plank is the Holly Red Winter Tree. If my life wasn't already full of mugs, I would probably be close to getting this one for myself. For some reason, I am really into trees that take over the whole canvas. My shower curtain is just a giant tree. For this, I used Joe Fresh Cherry as the base and then used a generic white striper to free hand the branches. Yes, my freehanding needs quite a bit of work.



Second up is the White Budding Tree - this one is still up on the website to see. I don't really like this one. I think it's really sloppy. Anyway. As a base, I used OPI White Alpine, OPI Mermaids Tears for the branches and OPI Jade is the New Black for the leaves.



Anyway, that's all I've got for my DAVIDsTEA Perfect Mug nail art. I am going to try and do other nail art until more DAVIDsTEA Perfect Mugs come out, so Mondays will go back to regular swatches, or if I am adventurous enough, other nail art adventures!